No Good Deed
by macrauchenia
Summary: "No good deed goes unpunished. Sure, I meant well -well, look at what well-meant did. Since I can not succeed in saving you, I promise no good deed will I attempt to do again. " - When Annie escapes from the crystal, she cannot allow herself to abandon him to a traitor's death. Especially when he's taking the fall for her. [Inspired by "No Good Deed" from Wicked] [AruAni]
1. No Good Deed

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Could you imagine how awful everything would be if I owned SnK/AoT? A lot worse than things are going now.  
**Author's Note: **First of all, this is not what I meant when I said I would write something happy. I have no clue what rock this particular fic crawled out from underneath, but, uh...fluff soon? Also, this was supposed to be only 1,000 words. Help...!

**I **_**strongly**_** recommend listening to "No Good Deed" from the ****_Wicked_**** soundtrack before or after reading this to get a sense of the mood. **It was my inspiration, I suppose, though it differs in endings from the musical (sort of?).  
I know my Annie might be a little off here, but blame it on the crystal and blame it on her mental decay, descent into madness, etc. I tried to write this as chaotically as possible to express her loss of clarity. (Guess who just had an English exam xD)

* * *

Her rattling breaths rolled out her chapped lips in puffs of silvery fog in the crisp early dawn. Captivity had not been good on the girl's once peak physique, and now she felt each gasp and pant in the cool air like a knife in her burning lungs.

Her feet pounded across the uneven cobblestone. Twice she nearly stumbled, but terror and a painfully learned sense of self-preservation prevented her from collapsing into an exhausted pile of trembling limbs. _The king should have spared more taxes for his roads than filling his gut. _The hazy thought flickered briefly through the girl's mind, ignored by the more dominant, more aggressive uproar of searching for a survival path. Her icy blue eyes darted sporadically around her, calculating the value of each shadowed doorway or thin alley as a potential escape route. Although she had just barely managed to escape her self-incarcerated prison and she was still acclimating to breathing fresh air, Annie was still the hunted quarry in a city teaming with ruthless, vengeful titan killers. She could not afford to pause even to catch her breath. She had to escape before he found her or she saw him.

Annie heard the excited clamor of her former Military Police colleagues and a few other familiar voices. Their heavy footsteps and loud shouts thundered behind and in front of her. Annie quickly slipped inside a shadowed doorway, forcing her thudding heart to calm in fear that its loud beat would betray her. She watched with wide, crystalline eyes as Hitch and Connie—_Connie? What's he doing here? He looks so old—_passed in front of her. They were oblivious to her presence. They had aged slightly—perhaps a few months or a year. While Hitch looked just as careless, Connie's once jubilant expression seemed faded.

"Woaw," Hitch's slow draw caused Annie to grit her teeth. Even in her most panicked state, Annie still was unable to quell her hatred for the lazy girl. Evidently, judging by the grim expression on the taller girl's companion, he was not happy with his partner either. _They must've paired up Military Police with Survey Corps members to find me better in the city,_ the girl realized with a tiny intake of breath. Escape was going to be much more difficult now. She had anticipated escaping her former colleagues easily due to their lack of courage and escaping her former friends easily due to their lack of knowledge on the layout of the city. However, paired together, they were a greater threat.

"I can't believe they arrested him," Hitch continued, oblivious to her hidden audience. "I mean, I'm not actually _surprised_ seeing as how he caused all this, but _still,"_ her whine caused the boy walking beside her to grit his teeth and look away. Annie froze at both the girl's message and the boy's expression of pain. "After all those months."

Annie knew it was really none of her business, as after all, she had just escaped from her crystal prison. Her first priority was escape. Still, she remembered firsthand how ominous the threat of being arrested by the king was when she a member of the Military Police brigade. Even months after her betrayal, she couldn't imagine the Crown being any more lenient on those who were a threat to the safety of humanity.

_Who was arrested? For what? It can't be anyone I know. _Annie willed for them to stop and for the first time, she wished Hitch would open her useless mouth again and release the name. However, the two kept walking and Annie watched them leave with narrowed eyes. Her breathing had returned to normal, but her chest still pounded with the sudden news.

"Hey! Connie! H-uh, Hotch!"

"_Hitch!"_

Sasha appeared at the end of the street, wide eyed and pale. She paid no mention to the glaring Military Police member beside Connie. "I just heard from Lance Corporal Levi"—Annie blinked at the name; _the name…it sounds familiar—_"that the Crown intends to execute him publically."

_Who?_!

Whoever the mysterious prisoner was, the news affected Connie significantly. The boy took a step back with a confused, horrified frown. "Wai—no, it can't be possible. I thought they were goi—I thought Levi and Commander Erwin fixed it. It wasn't his fault."

Sasha bit her lip and shook her head once, then twice as if to dispel a horrible image. "According to Heichou, the repeal didn't work."

Suddenly Jean appeared beside Sasha. His eyes were tired and Annie pressed herself further against the wall of her hidden alcove. This was becoming too dangerous for her comfort.

"Did you tell them?" he asked stiffly. Sasha nodded once. The taller brunet pursed his lips together and narrowed his eyes. His downtrodden expression reminded Annie of the boy's similar expression he wore after discovering Marco's body. A friend was going to die.

_Who is going to die?!_

"I—when is it supposed to happen? Where will it happen?"

"I'm not sure. I don't know how this city carries out its justice," Jean snarled sarcastically, barring his teeth in a sneer.

Hitch, who had been uncharacteristically silent throughout the entire exchange, crossed her arms with a slight smirk. She didn't care about who was being executed, but she enjoyed the torment crossing over the faces of the arrogant, self-righteous Survey Corps members.

"Public executions are usually done by firing squad in the main square. At least, if your friend is important enough to deserve it, it'll be there."

_"How dare you, you bi—!"_

Annie was surprised when Sasha, the most composed of the three former recruits, was the one to launch herself at the laughing Hitch. Connie and Jean struggled in vain to pull the girl back and Hitch laughed even louder at their enraged expressions.

"I wonder if they've already pumped his big brain for secrets. I've heard from the other guys that he seems like a bright kid."

_Oh no…_ Annie's pulse accelerated slightly. The terrified twisting in her gut reminded her that she was still in danger of being caught; however, she was even more distressed to note that the fear coursing through her veins was instead for someone else. Someone she thought would never bother her again.

_"Armin is not a traitor!"_ Jean was the one this time to lose his calm. His face contorted into such an anguished fury that Annie took a hiccup-y breath and before she could stop herself, she backed into the wall with a soft _thud._ Her head banged against the cold stone and her vision flared white for a moment before the world returned back to a muted color. The sound of the girl's impact briefly tore Jean from his rage and all four soldiers slowly turned towards the shadow where Annie had been previously concealed.

_Armin! No—he isn't the traitor. _I _am!_

With wide eyes like a wounded fowl backed into a tight corner, Annie suddenly sprung forward, delivering a glancing blow to Connie's thigh and shoving Jean out of the way. She could hear a pathetic squeal as well as her name echoed back in shock and confusion. Without a second of hesitation, Annie began to run towards the center of the city. The Survey Corps members were slowly adjusting to what had happened and began their pursuit of the girl. The blonde did not mind them. Annie only had one goal and everything that was happening behind her faded into the background.

She had to find Armin. She had to stop it.

_Why am I doing this? I could be free—I could be away from here. _

Annie heard Jean curse from an alley several yards from her. Evidentially, the Survey Corps members were having a difficult time navigating in the unfamiliar city without Hitch's assistance (as the girl had abandoned the chase immediately at the sight of Annie's face). Annie had overestimated the girl's courage.

Suddenly the loud crack of a Crown-issued rifle echoed through the tight corridor. Annie's running faltered at the sound, though she knew she wasn't in danger of being shot. The rifle sounded again, but Annie couldn't tell from which direction it was coming from.

After the third shot, her worn shoes caught on another jutting cobblestone and she stumbled, barely catching herself as she slammed into a wall. Her wrists screamed as they took the brunt of the collision and she staggered back, breathing heavily again.

_I—what is happening to me. _Annie took another step back, colliding with the wall behind her in the narrow alley. She grunted at the impact and lifted a trembling hand to her face. She patted her grimy, sweaty face with a light, hesitant tap.

_Why am I not moving? Why can't I leave?_

She ran her trembling fingers through her messy, unrestrained hair. Her hair had fallen out of its messy bun when she entombed herself in crystal and she hadn't yet had the opportunity to pin it back up.

_I need to leave before they find me. _

Annie lowered her hand and stared at the faint, white scar on her pinky caused by repeatedly using her ring. She wanted to feel powerful; she wanted to transform. But it was impossible—the moment she became the female titan, they would be on her instantly.

_Armin? What about Armin?_

_What does it matter if they kill him? He's the one who betrayed me. I should be the one to kill him. _

_I—But I spared him. He's a good person._

Annie had always experienced temporary confusion as a side-effect of her transformations, but this was far more powerful and far more vivid than anything she had ever felt before. This felt more like madness.

_Am I a good person?_

_He's a good person._

_I want to go home._

_What did he ever do wrong?_

_He tried to kill me. Is he a good person then?_

Another loud crack of the rifle jarred Annie from her chaotic thoughts. Her head swiveled towards the sound. It seemed as if the rifle shots were coming from the center of the city. Where Armin Arlert was set to be publically executed.

_They wouldn't do it now—they always wait till noo—No!_ The mournful bell on the Sina clock tower began to echo its condemning ring.

_One, two, three._ Annie stood completely erect, feeling each slow _dong_ reverberate through her tiny frame.

_Seven, eight, nine._ There was a hopeful pause after each ring where Annie willed the clock to stop its chiming. However, the clock continued to ring, undaunted by the girl's trembling and pleading thoughts.

_I—what is wrong with me? I need to get out of here—_

_Ten, eleven. _

The silence seemed louder than the previous eleven chimes.

_No twelve? Then it's only eleven o'clock. I have time to escape. _However, the blonde was rooted firmly to the spot, unable to abandon the only person who had ever treated her as human.

_—outside the walls there are these great big bodies of salty water called oceans. Eren, Mikasa and I were going to see it when we defeat the titans—_

_—Annie, why won't you wake up?—_

_—Would you like to come with us?—_

_—I'm sorry if I made you sad—_

She had heard him speaking to him through the crystal. His voice had sounded as if he were shouting from far away. Tinny, weak, disjointed. She had wanted to wake up for him—she had wanted to go to sleep forever— Why was she so tired?

_I want to go home._

Annie's feet were moving. She was stumbling forward as if in a dream. Or as if she had never waken up from this horrid nightmare. The rational, sensible part of her brain was urging her to turn around and run to the wall gates, but a deeper-set conscience kept her moving towards where they were keeping Armin.

_I need to find him. I need to save him. _

A volley of rifle shots stopped Annie in her tracks. _No—it's not time yet. He can't be dead. _Seconds later, she broke out into a run. Her terror and confusion impeded her judgment and memory, and she often had to backpedal after stumbling to a stop in dead ends.

_He didn't do anything. He's innocent. I'm guilty._

Her shoulder ached from where she had taken a corner too fast and in her desperation, rammed right into a doorway she had just passed minutes ago. Annie cried out softly from the shock and the mounting sensation of panic bubbling in her throat as she staggered in a half-circle and struggled to regain her balance and composure.

_What the hell is wrong with me? Why can't I think straight? What did he do to me?_

Annie finally burst from the dark alleyways and into the center square, blinking into the bright sunlight. Her eyes still hadn't adjusted from her dark imprisonment underground.

_ "Annie!?" _

Her head jerked in the direction of the voice. It seemed familiar. Her heart leapt into her throat—_Armin?_

Her icy blue eyes settled on Eren, who was being restrained by a blank-faced Mikasa. The boy was furious and his large, bright eyes blazed with hatred, but Annie wasn't sure to whom the anger was directed towards.

"This is all of your fault!"

The other former 104 recruits were present. All of Annie's former friends looked older, more tired. As her icy gaze passed over them, each teenager averted his or her eyes. Her eyes glazed over other strangers in the crowd, wearing civilian attire, the Wings of Freedom, or the badge of the Military Police. Her eyes landed briefly on a triad of older Survey Corps members. Two males and a female. An uneasy sense of apprehension twisted in her gut as she recognized and remembered their roles in capturing her. The tall blond—_Commander Erwin Smith—_had been the one who took Armin away from the safety of the walls and took away his humanity. The short, dark-haired man with crossed arms beside Erwin sent a shiver of dread down Annie's spin and the somber brunette to the other side of Erwin caused Annie's eyes to sting slightly. _Levi and Crazy-Titan-Lady. _All three of them had been frequent visitors to Annie's crystal.

Annie opened her mouth to try to explain or to say something, but she promptly closed it. She had nothing to say to them. She needed to see him.

"Annie Leonhardt."

Annie spun around to where the voice had come from.

Nile Dok. Her superior. The leader of the central Military Police force.

"You are hereby under arrest by order of the Crown for your crimes against humanity," the man began slowly, cautiously. "If you do not surrender peacefully, we have permission to execute you on the spot. Think carefully about what you do next," he warned, scrutinizing her with his beady, black eyes.

"Where is Armin Arlert?" For a moment, she didn't recognize the sound of her own voice. It was raspy and weak after months of disuse. "What have you done to him?"

If Dok was surprised by her questions, he didn't show it. "Armin Arlert was a traitor to humanity. He was executed for his crimes."

It felt as if iron bars had been inserted in Annie's spine. She couldn't move. She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe.

Annie scanned the faces of her former friends for confirmation. Their haggard, guilty expressions proved to Annie that this wasn't some sort of trick to bring her into the open.

"I—_no!" _Annie shook her head once, twice, and then three times. "What was his crime? Armin is no traitor!"

"We questioned him _thoroughly_ on his suspected actions." The blonde winced. She knew how _thorough_ and brutal police investigations could be. "There is no doubt that Armin Arlert was a traitor. He confessed it himself."

_"Because you tortured him until he confessed!"_

Nile Dok smiled apologetically. "Yes, I do admit there were a few moments when the suspect didn't cooperate."

A man, who Annie didn't recognize though he wore the badge of the Military Police, grinned nastily beside Nile. "I was personally put in charge of Arlert's interrogation. Would you like to hear the details? Just to be sure we didn't accuse him falsely?"

Annie wondered why the man's ugly smirk was shaking, but she realized it was her own body that was trembling in rage.

"No…" Annie hated the curious twinge in her gut. She wanted to know everything that happened to him, even if it ripped her apart inside.

The man continued gleefully as if he hadn't heard the girl or understood the belying hesitation in her voice. "At first he was stubborn—only insisting that what he had done was the best for humanity. He agreed to willingly accept whatever punishment the Crown issued, though he refused to give us valuable information." The man tilted his head slightly and smirked. Annie hated his guts. "We had to use creative tactics to interrogate him for knowledge about the human-shifters. After all, he had been in close _cohorts_ with at least two known shifters."

_I want to kill him. I want him to pay. _

_"Nile—_stop this! Please!" Annie jumped at the sound of the blond commander's plea. She had been so consumed in her hatred and anxiety that she had forgotten others were in the square too. Nearly every single member of the Survey Corps looked as furious or horrified as Annie did. Even the usually stoic Mikasa had tired eyes that shined far too brightly in the noon sun. Eren had stopped fighting his adoptive-sister's restraining grip. Only humanity's strongest solider seemed unaffected as he crossed his arms and watched Annie's world collide with a disinterested stare as one may watch a bug being crushed.

"Not after long," the man ignored Nile Dok's uncomfortable frown signaling for him to stop, "the prisoner began to lose that little bright spark in his eyes. Unfortunately he was reduced to weak babbling before we got anything from him." The man picked nonchalantly at his nails. "I thought the Survey Corps was selective, but apparently the runt managed to sneak through."

She was going to kill him. She wanted to kill them all.

_"Stop it!"_ Annie brought her shaking hand to her barred teeth in a final homage to the suicidal bastard. The silence in the center square was sharper than any rifle shot. Even sharper than the one that took Armin away. The members of the Military Police backed away at the girl's dramatic action, but the Survey Corps members remained rooted to the spot. Brave until the end. The girl briefly wondered if things would have been different if she joined Armin and the others in a life outside of the walls.

Could he have saved her? Would he have hated her less? Would he have trusted her?

"You've gone too far, Mentr," Nile hissed, wide-eyed and hand hovering over his Military Police rifle butt. He turned back to the seething, lithe blonde in front of him and extended a trembling hand towards her in a symbol of self-preservation and attempted truce.

"Don't do anything rash, Annie Leonhardt," Nile began slowly.

Annie dug her teeth further into the pale, soft skin stretched between her tiny thumb and index finger, but she did not bite into the flesh directly. Her icy glare dared her former superior to give her a reason not to do it. With Eren, Mikasa, and humanity's strongest present, Annie knew she wouldn't come out of the fight alive, but she would take out as many of them as she could first.

_What else is there to live for?_ She had fully intended to spend the rest of her life asleep. How would death be any different? Annie hated to sound like that sentimental girl they had known in training—_Anna? Hannah?—_who stayed to defend her lover's corpse when the titans overwhelmed them in Trost months ago, but she preferred the uncertainties of death if it provided her with a chance to see Armin again. Regardless of what the Crown believed, Annie knew Armin was no traitor; she was. She highly doubted that the two would be going to the same place after death. But she had to believe in something, even if just to soothe the mad beating in her chest and brain.

When he noticed that that girl's eyes didn't soften and she wasn't standing down, Nile hesitated and then sighed. The Military Police leader turned slightly, though still keeping a dark, untrusting on the blonde. "Bring him out," he announced behind him with another heavy sigh.

Annie froze and slowly followed the man's defeated gaze. Several soldiers suddenly appeared, shuffling as they half-carried a limp figure.

_"Armin!" _Annie heard Eren's shocked, overjoyed voice first, followed by the loud, cheering clamor as the rest of the former recruits realized their best friend wasn't gone yet. Amidst the uproar, Annie heard her own lips whisper the blond boy's name like a forbidden smile.

At hearing his own name, the boy shifted slightly and looked up, blinking owlish in the bright sunlight. His unfocused, dull gaze glazed over the concerned faces of his friends and landed on Annie. Immediately, the former flame rekindled in the boy's eyes and he smiled weakly at her around a bloodied and bruised mouth. Large purple stains bloomed across the boy's face and visible skin like wildflowers and his clothes were dirty and stained with a crusty crimson. The boy's greasy hair had grown longer and darker after a prolonged time away from sunlight and he leaned heavily against the guards that help him in place.

"Annie!" he croaked with a faint smile. "You woke up." She hadn't heard his voice in a long time, as his visits to her crystal had become less frequent until they eventually stopped altogether. She now knew why.

Annie stared at the boy, unable to comprehend what she was seeing. Armin was alive in front of her, but she couldn't feel any of the original anger she swore to feel when she ripped the boy apart herself. She only felt relieved that she could see his smile again.

"Release the prisoner," Nile sighed, glancing to the left and seeing the shocked expression of his former friend. _I'm not the only one who can manipulate people, Erwin._

Armin blinked down at the heavy shackles weighing down his wrists. The blank faced guards adverted their gazes as one bent down to remove the chains. The bruised blond rubbed dazedly at the angry red chafe rings around his wrists as if he still couldn't believe it. For all he knew, this could have been one long, extended nightmare and he would wake up any second, aching and bruised in his damp cell.

_Armin. _Annie decided that she wasn't just pleased to see the boy again. She was overjoyed, though her face still maintained a semi-impassive stare. She couldn't afford to reveal how much the boy's life affected her, though she had already unknowingly given away her feelings for the boy earlier.

Nile watched with pursed lips as the girl lowered her trembling hand from her teeth. _It worked. It would seem that the she-titan does have a heart._

Wincing at each step, Armin shuffled uncertainly, slowly towards the girl. His smile was wide, though the occasional flash in his crystalline eyes betrayed his pain.

"Annie," he repeated.

Mentr narrowed his eyes, still feeling sore after being rebuked by Nile. The she-titan had killed his best friend when she rampaged across Sina in the colossal battle with Eren Jaeger. Seeing her reunited with the same boy who defended and befriended the brunet human-shifter made the man's skin crawl. The human-shifters weren't the problem.

People who treated them as humans were. The Sina clock tower began to chime and Mentr made his decision by the twelfth ring.

"By order of the King, Armin Arlert, you are hereby charged with death for your traitorous actions against Wall Sina and the Crown." He lifted his rifle and aimed his sight on the hobbling boy.

Nile turned, horrorstruck after overhearing the man's soft mumble. _"_What do you think you are _doing!?"_ He demanded, yanking the rifle from the man's tight grip. The two struggled for a moment as Nile tried to wrestle the loaded weapon from the man. The dark haired man held no particular affection for the human-shifter or her human friend, but if either of them died, there would be consequences to pay.

_Crack!_

Mentr released his finger on the trigger with a triumphant smirk.

The bullet collided with the blond boy's left shoulder in an explosion of scarlet, spinning him nearly 180° from the force of the impact. His pained, shocked eyes met Annie's wide stare and his already weak knees buckled.

_Armin!_ Every one of the girl's limbs and every single thought screamed in tandem as she lunged for the collapsing boy. _No…no… _She had just gotten him back and now he was leaving her again. She was always the one to leave—it wasn't fair that he'd leave her now.

He fell into her arms and she crushed his still warm form to her chest to try to keep the warmth forever. However, she was still weak after escaping the crystal and from the waves of unfamiliar emotion washing over her, and she was unable to support his deadweight, as light as his emaciated frame was. The two collapsed in the deathly silent city square.

Others may have spoken or screamed, but Annie couldn't hear anything apart from Armin's slow, hesitant heartbeat echoing through her burning chest. With one hand pressed to the sticky entry hole in the boy's back, Annie smoothed the boy's dirty, tangled hair with her other hand. His hair couldn't have been much shorter than her own hair now. The girl suppressed a hiccup-y laugh. Her world was crumbling in her arms and all she could think of was a ponytail. Perhaps she never truly recovered from her captivity in the crystal. Perhaps she was going mad.

Armin's wide blue eyes struggled to focus themselves on Annie's pale face. "Annie," he murmured. "You woke up," he repeated dazedly. A lazy smile flickered across his lips as he closed his eyes.

_No. Armin!_ Realizing he couldn't hear her thoughts, Annie repeated his name out loud. _"Armin…" _she whispered. "Don't go."

He didn't respond, though she could still feel the rumble of his heart and the occasional heave of his chest as he struggled to breathe. Annie crushed the boy tighter to her chest and although she wasn't crying, she felt as if her soul was leaking out through her fingers and she couldn't stop it.

A shadow crossed over her, blocking out the broiling sun. She didn't look up; she guessed it was Eren.

"I swore that I would kill you to avenge my squad," a soft, cold voice murmured above her. Annie stiffened slightly at the voice. _Humanity's strongest. He wants to take his vengeance too. _Annie did not tear her gaze from the top of Armin's head. _I don't care anymore._

"You were not human then, but you are human now," he continued cryptically.

Annie looked up, surprised by the man's statement. She knew neither of them would ever become friends or even allies, but for one moment, it seemed as if they could understand each another. Annie glanced back down at the dying boy in her arms. It was cruel and wrong that when many people died, she was inhuman, but when a single blond boy died, then she became human.

"Why was he a traitor?"

Levi sighed. "The shitty brat did what any soldier would do and took the fall for his commander. He took Erwin's place, claiming it was his idea to infiltrate Wall Sina to find you. It's your fault," the man added with narrowed eyes, still bitter over the death of his comrades. Although he hadn't known the boy well, he still respected the blond strategist's loyalty to Erwin. When the Military Police first announced the boy's expected execution, he knew that humanity was losing a fine soldier.

Annie's shoulders drooped. _He hasn't changed then, has he? He's still loyal. _The boy's breathing became hitched gasps and she could no longer jostle him awake as she had been able to previously. _And now he's going to be dead. _

"I will still avenge my team," Levi added softly, "but I will give you a choice." He slowly removed his shinning blade from its holster on his inactive 3DMG. The blade glinted in the harsh noon sun and threw bright echoes of sunshine on Annie's blank face. She regarded the titanium sword with a defeated, half-lidded stare. If he was killing her regardless, why did he taunt her with mercy? Humanity's strongest soldier had not struck her as a petty man searching for vengeance. She looked up to his face for any more information about her choices but his gaze remained unchanged.

He extended his blade almost as a peace offering and the girl suddenly knew what to do.

Although the boy in her lap was taller than her by a few inches now, she managed to pull in his limbs as close to her body as possible. Wrapping a steady arm around the prone boy's sticky back, she reached for the blade. Annie ran her hand smoothly across the cold metal, relishing the sensation of ice as her palm was divided by a thin, crimson sliver.

Gasps of disbelief and panicked whispers spread across the gathered crowd as Lance Corporal Levi had enabled the female titan to injure herself.

_What if she goes crazy? What's he doing? It's official—Heichou's crazy. Is Armin de-dead…?_

Annie glanced up to meet the solemn gaze of the dark-haired man. _Thank you,_ she thought before looking back at Armin's bruised, peaceful face. She wasn't going to leave him or hurt him again.

The cold sensation began at the base of her neck. Everything began at the base of her neck.

The prickles of apprehension when she realized Armin wasn't the same. The flush when he declared her to be a good person. The icy numbness when she froze herself the first time, unable to face his accusing blue eyes again.

The flurry of whispers increased as she felt the crystal solidify and creep down her back, but it was far too late for anyone to stop her now. The crystals attached to her loose hair like diamonds and caressed her back like a lullaby luring her back to sleep. She watched as the shimmering glow jump from her pale arm to Armin's bloodied back and engulfed the boy in a bright, beautiful light. A faint fog leaked from the boy's noise due to the icy chill in the air and Annie smiled. He was still alive. She wasn't going to be alone in her dreams. The same peaceful smile was forever etched on his soft lips.

Soon her torso was covered and the light traveled down the rest of her body. Though the crystal was cold, she could still feel the fleeting warmth of Armin's still body pressed against hers. Her thoughts slowed to a sluggish standstill and she could feel sleep beaconing her home.

Annie wondered if Armin was dreaming of her, just as she was dreaming of him.

They were safe in silent slumber forever. Annie had no desire to leave. The crystal tomb soon completed its task in blanketing the two embracing teens in a diamond mantle.

And Annie knew no more.

* * *

Well, at least she's happy, which is a whole lot more than what I've done in the past. I'm not sure how, but I can hazard an epilogue (A nice one, I SWEAR!) if you guys want one, though there's probably some hesitation after what happened in _Brave and Kind. _  
**Thanks for reading!**


	2. No Act of Charity

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing. Not a thing.  
**Author's Note: **Boy, this came out faster than I thought it would. I really need to stop making things have epilogues since it destroys my productivity. I've done nothing today except write. This ship is ruining my life.

* * *

It took nearly three weeks, but the Survey Corps finally won custody over the crystal. The hardest part was convincing Commander Erwin to drop the charge of murder (for it was impossible to bring Armin back to life, it seemed) against Mentr. He even opted to go back into custody for his earlier "crimes" if the impulsive Military Police man joined him. However, after a few choice and very convincing words from humanity's strongest, a deal was quietly struck and the crystal encasing two former 104th recruits soon rode out of the city under the cover of night.

No one argued when several of the recruits insisted that they should ride back with their friend one last time. Levi merely sighed, rolled his eyes, and gave his new squad permission to do so.

The six former recruits who had been present in the city gathered around the large diamond to spend their vigil in silence. Eren sat on the side closest to Armin and kept his left hand pressed to the crystal throughout the entire trip. If he pretended with his eyes squeezed tight, he thought he could feel the slow thud of a heartbeat echoing in the cool suction between the stone and his palm. But when Eren opened his eyes again, he rationalized that it was only the rumble of the uneven road beneath them.

The others sat further away from the crystal, but they did not tear their gaze from it throughout the entire ride as if Annie and Armin would suddenly burst from within. Jean stared tiredly at the two entombed teenagers. Although the crystal was hazy, he could still make out the human-shifter's arm wrapped comfortingly around their mutual friend and the ghost of a smile across Armin's peaceful face. There were frozen in slumber forever.

Jean had lost one friend to fire and the other to ice. He wasn't sure which was worse.

After another impossibly long stretch of silence, the horse-drawn cart slowed to a halt and the kids slowly exited, stiff and exhausted. They were back home. They had brought back two of their own who were previously lost, but it didn't feel like a homecoming.

* * *

The debate over what to do next raged for nearly another month. Although Levi's new team and high ranking officials were the only ones allowed to make the decision, they were still painfully split. Mikasa, Hanji, and strangely Eren were in agreement that the crystal should be opened, Annie should be interrogated, and Armin should receive a proper burial. The latter was particularly vehement, as the sight of his bruised, lifeless friend caused him pain every time he came to visit him.

Christa, Connie and Sasha were equally passionate that they should just let Armin and Annie rest in peace. When asked about his opinion, Jean merely turned away without a word.

They had all gathered in front of the crystal for the final decision. Several of the former recruits hadn't seen it since their vigil, but the memory of that day was still fresh in their minds. Determined to end this debate once and for all, Erwin exasperatedly turned towards his second-in-command and announced that whatever Levi decided would be the result.

All gazes snapped expectantly on humanity's strongest. Neither knew exactly what would happen, since the short man had promised vengeance on the girl, yet had also been the one to free her mercifully from this world. Ignoring their curious stares, Levi walked solemnly towards the crystal and knocked lightly against the cool rock. He stared at the blurry, distorted faces within while mulling over his decision.

"I'll be the one to say when we open it," he announced after a pause. "For now, let them sleep."

* * *

At the insistence of Levi's new squad, the crystal was moved to the great hall. The former 104th recruits had cornered their leader and begged him to allow them to move Armin and Annie to the open. Levi sighed again and said he wanted no part of it and so help them if they made a mess.

After much grunting and annoyed snapping, the living, diamond tomb was soon standing by the front entrance as a greeting to anyone who entered or exited. The sight still made Eren and Jean especially uncomfortable, but after Sasha had noticed the cool, misty fog that had frozen while seeping from Armin's mouth, the blond became less dead and more alive to the remaining survivors. Believing the two to be sleeping instead of dead made the guilt and pain softer for some reason.

Eventually the remaining survivors grew used to the idea and the two figures within soon became the guardian angels of Levi's second squad. Before each mission, each teenager would press a reverent hand to the cool stone and pray for Annie to provide them with strength and Armin to provide them with courage and intelligence.

Although Levi still never forgave the female human-shifter, he still participated in the tradition in his own way. There was always a brief pause before each mission as Levi flicked his narrowed gaze in the direction of the two frozen teenagers. Sometimes one of the Survey Corps members would catch Levi staring distantly at the crystal with his hands clasped behind his back late at night as well, but when Connie had once brought it up, he was assigned mop duty for three weeks.

Fearing a similar fate, no one had dared to ask Heichou when he would decide to open the crystal.

* * *

Time passed quickly and soon Levi's squad members were joined by other recruits who had been inspired by the legends of their predecessors to join the Survey Corps. Without fail, each of the new, wide-eyed recruits would halt in the middle of their marching and stare at the frozen crystal and its occupants the first time they entered the Survey Corps base. There had been legends of the crystal back at camp, but no one had actually believed them. Their fascination and confusion only mounted further when one day Connie had nonchalantly walked past the stone, casually remarking to the crystal that he hoped they were still having sweet dreams.

Naturally, the rumors spread like wildfire. No one had been brave enough to ask one of the original members about the strange boy and girl entombed in the crystal and as a result, inaccuracy and imagination ran rampant. The most popular was that the two teens had been forbidden lovers and preferred encasing themselves in stone to be together than apart. The closest clue they had gotten to the truth was when a particularly dull rookie repeated the theory to Jean.

The brunet had merely barked once in laughter and shook his head. "Perhaps," he had uttered and said no more on the subject.

The story of the crystal soon became a more popular topic than who was now humanity's strongest or their brunet human-shifting squad leader. Not after long, the newest members of the Survey Corps soon adopted the tradition of their predecessors and would knock on the crystal for good luck each time they passed, though they knew not to whom they were petitioning.

* * *

Disjointed words and soft touches had trickled through her dreams and penetrated her subconscious as she drowsily remembered past moments and imagined future impossibilities. First she was only conscious of the voices of her former friends, but soon unfamiliar, _louder_ voices interrupted her solitude. However, she cared little as she still felt the forever warm form of Armin pressed against her chest and saw his smile in her dreams.

Annie was sharply jolted back into the present at the sound of tiny picks scraping away at the thing that was keeping her captive. A faint hiss sounded above her and she knew someone was attempting to artificially destroy her prison.

Levi had made his decision.

_No—I—what's going on? No—they can't! Armin? Armin? Where are you?_

Sweet, fresh oxygen flooded her lungs and for the first time in decades, she gasped a loud, thirsty gulp of air. A loud crack and a spear of unfiltered light assaulted her senses and caused the girl to recoil.

_No…stop…_ she pleaded weakly in her mind. But no one could hear her because no one stopped.

Still stunned by the onslaught of reality against her tender sensory functions, she resisted little when Armin's body was gently tugged away from her. Her hand slipped from his back and she was reminded with a horrible jar in her gut that it felt like the blood had begun to flow again. He was going to die.

"Armin," she managed to croak weakly. "Please…stop…" Her voice stung from years of disuse. If she had thought her previous acclimation had been bad, this was hell.

_Armin—he's going to die. Stop! Stop! What are you doing!?_

"Annie!" The voice was vaguely familiar, as if she had heard it in a dream.

_Annie? Who? This is a nightmare—I'm still sleeping. Armin is still with m—Armin! Where are you? I want to go back to sleep. Why won't they let me slee—Armin?_

Annie couldn't control her chaotic thoughts. She wasn't even sure if she had heard the voice in the first place or if it had been a figment of her imagination. The world was exploding and she couldn't even remember her name. She only knew the name Armin.

"Annie!" The voice echoed again. _Am I Annie?_ "Annie, can you hear me?"

_Annie Leonhardt. Annie Leonhardt. _

Her limbs were getting stronger. She thrashed her arms in the direction that they had taken Armin. There was the sound of twinkling glass as if several people had jumped back at the same time. She had struck something, but she couldn't tell what.

"Open your eyes if you can hear me!"

_Connie?_ The name drug back painful memories. _It sounds like Connie's voice—but deeper…_

The girl slowly pried her eyes open. A man with anxious bronze eyes was inches from her face, watching her intently. _Connie?_ The person before her was at least forty with worn, tan skin and silvery hair shaved close to the top of his head.

"Is she awake?" another familiar voice echoed. Annie couldn't see where it came from, but a tired, smiling ginger woman appeared beside Connie. _Sasha? _

"Yeah," Connie answered, staring warily at Annie's clenched fists, "but I'm not sure how calm she is." Faint, white scratch marks lined the man's faces as Annie realized who she had hit.

Sasha laughed loudly and for a moment Annie was filled with a strange sense of longing for the old days at the training camp. Even after decades, their spirits still weren't broken. "You should have remembered after all this time that she beat us all in hand-to-hand."

"Yeah," Connie repeated, sounding less like a dignified warrior and more like a sullen teenager.

However, Annie's numbness soon bubbled away to reveal anger. "Why!?" Annie interrupted the banter between the two with a loud shout. "Why did you free us?! You killed Armin!" She had thought she would have been able to spend the rest of eternity in peace. It seemed as if she only had gotten twenty or so years.

Each nearly twice the size of the girl, yet both adults took a cautionary step back.

"What are you shitty brats doing now?"

Annie couldn't see who had spoken, though it sounded unmistakably like Corporal Levi. Sasha rolled her eyes and shot Connie a knowing look. "Nothing, Heichou. Just helping Annie get used to things," the younger male added.

"Go help the old blind bat. You don't want her to screw up again, do you?"

Connie paled at the memory and grabbed Sasha's arm. The two scampered off, but not before the man rapped his knuckles against the largest remaining shard of crystal. "For luck," he added with a cryptic smile.

Slowly the older man limped into Annie's sight. The girl suppressed the urge to raise an eyebrow. He certainly didn't look like humanity's strongest anymore. Maybe humanity's oldest. Wrinkles spread across the man's pale face like tree roots and his once raven hair was streaked with silver.

He caught the girl's unimpressed look and glowered slightly, swearing that he would finish the job he started twenty-six years ago, but instead of slicing her hand, he would slice her throat.

His words caused Annie to look down at her aching palm. She must have missed when the smoke had healed her, since the wound was already sealed over. "Where's Armin?" She was no longer angry. She was just tired.

"Let's go."

* * *

She heard the voices before she could tell who they belonged to. A soft, feminine voice rarely spoke, but Annie knew from even the few whispered words that it was Mikasa. In contrast to Mikasa's soft voice, another deeper, louder male voice was clearly audible. Judging by the annoyed expression on her escort's face, she hazarded a guess that that voice belonged to the suicidal bastard. Quite frankly, she was surprised he wasn't dead yet. The last voice was a nice compromise of the two opposites. Eren spoke the most, though he was periodically interrupted by the third voice, which Annie assumed was Jean's, judging by the irritated _"Jaeger"_ that often accompanied it. Someone was asking questions, but the voice was too faint for Annie to hear.

Levi stopped in the middle of the hallway and scowled at Annie again. "Wait here," he ordered.

The girl stood deathly still in place, hoping to catch fragments of what was being shared. Fortunately, Eren was a loud narrator.

"Jean's the new commander," Eren began. "He does alright, I guess." He paused for the fourth person to ask a question. "No, not titans. We think it was a heart attack, but no one's ever lived long enough to have one….Yeah, speaking of old, Heichou's still here, but he's a bit too ancient to be useful…Nah, I'm squad leader now. I'm new Heichou, I guess." Eren broke off and glanced towards the door. Annie realized this, as she had disobeyed Levi's strict order and had gravitated towards the four speakers. She could see the three adults, but she couldn't see who was resting in the bed.

Commander Jean surveyed the girl with a vaguely interested stare. He had grown another three inches since she had seen him all those years ago. His hair was unfortunately still the same two-tone brunet color, though it looked less ridiculous as it was combed down now. Mikasa hardly looked any different and she still wore the tattered red scarf around her neck, though it was looking quite pitiful now. She regarded Annie with fierce, narrowed eyes as if daring her to come close. She met Eren's eyes briefly before the man turned back to the figure on the bed. The human-shifter took a protective step closer to the figure on the bed.

"How?" Annie froze. The voice—it was Armin's. _That's impossible. Am I still dreaming? Is this a trick?_ She wanted to take a step forward to see if it was true, but Mikasa's angry stare and Jean's subtle shake of the head kept her firmly in place.

"How?" Eren repeated. "How about we tell you that after you sleep again. Hanji's getting up there, so you'll need your strength if you want to help keep her out of trouble. Go to sleep," Eren added softly.

Armin made a sarcastic quip about how he had slept enough to last him a lifetime, but he still closed his eyes obediently. Either he was taking this turn of events rather well or the reality of the situation hadn't hit him yet.

After a pause, Eren tore his gaze from his sleeping friend and looked at Annie with a hard stare. "You can come in now," he murmured softly.

Annie entered hesitantly, avoiding the accusing and hateful gazes surrounding her. She kept her wide eyes focused solely on the sleeping blond in the bed. _How…? _

She laced her fingers in the boy's hair, which caused Mikasa to bristle slightly. He looked the same as he did in her dreams. His bruises were faded and the only remnant of the boy's busted mouth was the crisp of dried crimson on his cheek. She slowly pulled down the boy's collar and suppressed a gasp. Where the bullet hole had been previously, only a puckered, star shaped scar remained.

She looked towards the others for some sort of explanation.

"How?" she repeated Armin's question dumbly.

"It was actually Armin's idea," Eren answered. Annie blinked. Her brain had yet to catch up with reality and she was still overwhelmed by the sight of Armin alive and well. "He wrote notes documenting you while you were in the crystal the first time. Hanji knew what they meant, but basically he noticed that your finger," the man lifted his hand and gestured to the knuckle on his pinky, "healed itself after a certain amount of time. Armin had guessed that the crystal was sort of like a solid form of whatever smoke comes out when it heals us. That's why you were able to survive the imprisonment for so long."

Annie was stunned by the thought. Never before had she thought of the crystal as something that preserved life. She had always regarded it as an alternative to death. However, she wasn't particularly surprised that Armin had been the one to figure it out. He had always been brilliant.

Annie looked back down at the sleeping boy. She and he were to be bound forever—still children when everyone had already grown up. It reminded her vaguely of a children's story Armin had read to them while at training.

"Is everyone still alive?" she asked hesitantly, knowing the answer. Already she knew Commander Erwin was dead.

Eren glanced away and Mikasa answered. "Reiner and Bertholdt are dead. They were also human-shifters." Annie nodded once. She had known, but she had hoped her actions might have convinced them to abandon their mission. Evidentially her "dying" twice wasn't enough to stop them.

"We don't know where Ymir is," Eren interrupted. "She was a human-shifter too, but she wasn't helping them. But Christa's fine. And you've already seen Connie and Sash—"

"_Eren! Mikasa! Commander Jeeeeeeean!"_

The two burst into the room, panting heavily with wide eyes. "You gotta stop Hanji. She's crazy," Connie announced, sounding still like the same teenager he was decades ago.

"Oh, man…. It's bad," Sasha added with a frantic gesture.

Eren sighed good naturedly and rolled his eyes. "We're coming."

Connie poked his head into the room and grinned at the sight of the younger two occupants. "We beseech you for your strength, intelligence, and courage, O Sleeping Angels," he added before disappearing. Annie blinked, lost for the hundredth time that day. Eren and Mikasa followed after them. For some reason, they now trusted her to be alone with Armin. Perhaps it was after they realized that Annie's action had ended up saving the boy.

The commander paused before exiting. Surprisingly, Jean's usually fiery eyes had held the least amount of animosity towards the human-shifter through the entire exchange. In his opinion, the girl before him had saved his friend and he was eternally grateful. She still had a long way to go, but saving Armin was a perfect first step in regaining his trust.

"When you and Armin were, uh, in the crystal, you became a sort of a sensation," he remarked with a dry smile. "Your stone was said to have brought others good fortune and safety. Who knows—it helped Armin and it might have helped us stay alive for so long." Jean went to leave and then he hesitated.

"It wasn't just Armin," he added after an uncomfortable pause. "Levi saved you too."

Annie shrugged. "I could have just bit my hand instead. I didn't need his sword."

"No, not about that. I mean, when we brought the crystal—er, _you and Armin _back, Erwin gave Levi the choice of when he wanted to break it open. Even Eren wanted him to crack it right then and there and well, we know what would have happened then. Armin would have died and you probably would have followed." Annie started at the man with wide eyes.

"But Levi never gave us permission until just a few days ago. Honestly, I thought he had forgotten, but—"

"What?"

The man across from her rubbed the back of his neck. It struck Annie that this was the longest conversation she had ever had with him. "It's just that—Levi spent a lot of time just looking at the crystal. We were too upset or whatever to actually _look_ at it, but he didn't care like the rest of us. He just watched and watched—I think he was watching Armin heal."

Annie slowly digested the news. Although she did not know the man well, this all seemed far too unrealistic and out of character for humanity's strongest soldier. She didn't understand it one bit. _He said he wanted to take his vengeance on me—but he's only ended up saving Armin and me repeatedly._

"Why?"

Jean shrugged and headed towards the door. Eren's loud shrieking spelt future trouble that the commander would surely have to clean up. "You'd have to ask him yourself."

Annie frowned. Some things, she supposed, she would never know.

"Hey—Annie?" The girl's head snapped up. "Thanks," the man smiled before disappearing out the door.

Annie nodded weakly and reached for Armin's unblemished hand. She could still be dreaming, but she didn't care. She was home again.

* * *

Yay! Happiness! Life! Also, I've noticed that Connie and Jean (and sometimes Eren) are always focal characters in my stories. _Sacrifice, Brave and Kind, _and now this. I wonder why I cling to them...  
**Thanks for reading and reviewing! You guys are awesome! Wanna see something in particular from me? Shoot me a message!**


End file.
